As a founder member of Mystery Women in 1997, promoting Crime Fiction has always been my passion.
Following the closure of Mystery Women, a new group was formed on 30th January 2012 promoting crime fiction.
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Friday, 6 May 2016

‘The Other Side of Silence’ by Philip Kerr

Published by Quercus, 29
March 2016. ISBN: 978-1-78429-514-1

French Riviera, 1956. Bernie
Gunther, the protagonist of the author’s ten highly popular novels, is now
working under a false name as a concierge at a smart hotel in Cap Ferrat. He is
exhausted and emotionally drained by his previous experiences in Nazi Germany
before, during, and after the war. Now, with his wife’s (his third wife)
leaving him to return to Berlin, he is so alone and depressed that he attempts,
unsuccessfully, to commit suicide. The last straw had been the arrival at the
hotel of a German calling himself Harold Heinz Hebel but whom Bernie recognises
as Harold Hennig who had been responsible for the deaths of thousands during
the last months of the war as the Russian army advanced into eastern Germany.
Among the dead had been Irmela Schaper, a young woman with whom Bernie had
fallen deeply in love and who is pregnant with his child. Bernie cannot forgive
Hennig/Hebel and is appalled to see him, not only never having answered for his
crimes but apparently highly prosperous. Bernie’s only relaxation is playing bridge; he
meets a handsome English woman, Anne French, and agrees to teach her. She for
her part wants to write a biography of the famous writer elderly and reclusive
Somerset Maugham who lives nearby and she hopes playing bridge will help her to
gain access to him. But Bernie warns her that Maugham dislikes all women and
will never grant her access. What does happen is that Maugham’s nephew Robin
encounters Bernie and, having heard that Bernie plays bridge, asks him up to
Maugham’s house. In fact, Maugham has a purpose in getting to know Bernie; Hennig,
in addition to his Nazi past, is and always has been a blackmailer, using his
knowledge of other people’s secrets to gain both riches and power. Now some
photographs have come into his possession which indicate Maugham’s life as a
homosexual, something about which the French are fairly broadminded but which
in the UK was then a frequently prosecuted criminal offence; moreover Guy
Burgess who recently has been revealed a Soviet double agent and who has
defected to Moscow features in some of the photographs. Hennig has targeted
Maugham who, knowing of Bernie’s past career as a detective, wants him to act
as go-between Hennig and himself in such a way that Hennig will no longer be a
threat to him. Bernie, who is desperate to leave where he is and try and make a
new life somewhere – anywhere – else, agrees to act for Maugham for money. But
things turn out to be not so simple particularly since Bernie whose remarkable
prowess with women has been chronicled in earlier Bernie titles has begun an
intense affair with Anne French. After all Bernie tells us that he is in
remarkably good shape, despite being sixty-ish, putting on weight and losing a
bit of hair, so why not? But should he smell a rat? And are there further
ramifications involving the British secret services and other possible double
agents?

The
story is fast-moving with a complex plot. As with his previous novels, the
author has meticulously researched the period about which he is writing. Bernie
is still cynically wisecracking his way through life, while at the same time
his thoughts reveal his deep inner unhappiness. Somerset Maugham and his cronies
are excellently drawn. Fans of the series will be more than happy to read this
title.

-------

Reviewer: Radmila May

Philip Kerrwas born 22 February 1956 in Edinburgh. He
was educated at Stewart’s Melville College and at a grammar school in
Northampton. He studied at the University of Birmingham from 1974 to 1980,
gaining a master's degree in law and philosophy. Kerr worked as an advertising
copywriter for Saatchi and Saatchi before becoming a full-time
writer in 1989. A writer of both adult fiction and non-fiction, he is known for
the Bernie Gunther series of historical thrillers set in Germany and
elsewhere during the 1930s, the Second World
War and the Cold War. He has also written children's books under the name P.B.
Kerr, including the Children of the Lamp series. Kerr has written
for The Sunday Times, the Evening
Standard and the New Statesman.
He is married to fellow novelist Jane Thynne;
the two live in Wimbledon, London and have three children. He
is a life-long supporter of Arsenal.

Radmila Maywas born
in the US but has lived in the UK ever since apart from seven years in The
Hague. She read law at university but did not go into practice. Instead
she worked for many years for a firm of law publishers and has been working for
them off and on ever since. For the last few years she was one of three editors
working on a new edition of a practitioners' text book on Criminal Evidence by
her late husband; the book has now been published thus giving her time to
concentrate on her own writing. She also has an interest in archaeology in
which subject she has a Diploma.

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About Me

From an early age I have been a lover of crime fiction. Discovering like minded people at my first crime conference at St Hilda’s Oxford in 1997, I was delighted when asked to join a new group for the promotion of female crime writers. In 1998 I took over the running of the group, which I did for the next thirteen years.
During that time I organised countless events promoting crime writers and in particular new writers. But apart from the sheer joy of reading, ‘I actually love books, not just the writing, the plot or the characters, but the sheer joy of holding a book has never abated for me. The greatest gift of my life has been the ability to read'.